Max Verstappen may have to pay in excess of £100million to cut himself free from his Red Bull contract to join Mercedes for the F1 2026 season. That is the claim of Sky F1 reporter Craig Slater, who says the figure has been put forward by a “team insider.

As Red Bull boss Christian Horner continues to make clear, Verstappen is under contract with the team through 2028. This allows Horner to dismiss the discussion around a potential Verstappen move as noise, as he did during the Austrian Grand Prix. However, as this former lawyer will tell you, there is always a way out.